Maulana Muhammad Ali: Beneficent Defender of Islam
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Bismillah-ir-Rahman-ir-Raheem Maulana Muhammad Ali: Beneficent Defender of Islam Maulana Muhammad Ali 1 first strategized, and then defended Islam from so many communities, using only his gifted mental brilliance and his fountain pen as his weapons for defending Islam. He was a prolific writer. During the lifetime of Maulana Muhammad Ali, electronic technology such as computers did not exist, except for manual typewriter; he had to handwrite all his massive works using a fountain pen and for very long hours daily. It was soon after World War I and many communities throughout the world were greatly disturbed from various communal rivalries. Maulana Muhammad Ali was identified to embark upon defending Islam against several communities, which were bent in extirpating Islam. This short article is barely sufficient to do justifiable glorification to Maulana Muhammad Ali, who commenced his professional career as a professor in mathematics; and later became a lawyer. There are several footnotes in this short article with immediate brief notes only. However, the reader is graced with expanded details to the footnotes and these have been listed under the caption of Appendix 1, at the end of this article. For anybody to have completed a BA in mathematics at age of 19, a MA in English2 at age of 22 and a LLB in law all by the age of 25 and in the year 1899 would most certainly be considered as an outstandingly brilliant person. One such person was Professor Muhammad Ali of Lahore (then in British Raj India)3. He was so brilliant that he was made a professor in mathematics. Thereafter he commenced lecturing in mathematics at another university and not from where he had obtained his degrees. Surely he was guided and blessed by Allah in preparation for his future. He commenced his lecturing in mathematics as a professor at the age of 19 and many of his students in class were many years older than Professor Muhammad Ali. He was very humble and did not complain that his students were older than he. Professor Muhammad Ali obtained his LLB degree as his last academic achievement. Just before he had set up his 1 Maulana Muhammad Ali (b.1874-d.1951) was the world-famous translator of the Holy Qur’an both in English and Urdu. He researched and authored many books on Islam and compiled the Manual of Hadith. 2 Maulana Muhammad Ali completed both his BA in mathematics and MA in English from the Government College in Lahore (then in British Raj India), which was considered the best university in India at the time. 3 British Raj India was the name given to Hindustan (India) from 1858 – 1947, when following the Sepoy (Indian) Mutiny of 1857, the British East India Company brought in British Troops and commandeered control of India after capturing and imprisonment of the last Mughal Emperor of India in 1857. 1 professional practice as a brilliant lawyer, Professor Muhammad Ali moved over to Qadian4 to set up his very own lawyer’s office. It was here in Qadian that he and his elder brother Aziz Bakhsh5 were approached most influentially by the 14th Hijri6 Reformer7 Hazrat Mirza8 Ghulam Ahmad, to discontinue going into private practice as a lawyer; but to join the Ahmadiyya9 Movement in the service of Allah. Maulana Muhammad Ali agreed to do so in that single request and sold his practice. The most common question that may cross anybody’s mind is why was it necessary for 14th Hijri Reformer10 Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad to select Maulana Muhammad Ali to join the Ahmadiyya Movement; and in doing so, prevented Maulana Muhammad Ali from commencing his very lucrative career in legal practice, bearing in mind that he was already a qualified young lawyer? The answer is very simple: It was purely Divine guidance, which the 14th Hijri Reformer Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad had received from Allah, through His angels. Seldom do people appreciate the wonderful ways, which are part of the marvellous planning that Allah plans. The 14th Hijri Reformer Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad had some difficulty in written communications using the English language. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was well-versed in Persian (Parsi), Punjabi, Urdu and Arabic but not so in English. India was under British Raj at that time and English was the official language of India. The situation that faced the 14th Hijri Reformer Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was that he needed a brilliant language-bridging agent, who could translate all his written works into very high standard of English. 4 Qadian is a large township in Punjab (Gurdarspur), India. 5 Landlord Mukum-Ud-Din was the paternal grandfather of Maulana Muhammad Ali. 6 Hijri is the Islamic calendaring system commencing from 622AD. Hijri dates are generally with prefix or suffix use of AH. 7 The promised Reformer of the 14th Century (Hijri) is also referred to as the “Mujaddid” or Promised Messiah and the “Imam Mahdi.” The English word Reformer is better suited to the English-speaking not-Muslim communities. 8 Mirza is a Persian title which is the equivalent to a Noble or a Prince. The title comes from Persian root word “Amirzade” which literally means “child of Ruler” and with other pronouncing variations in former Timurids occupied communities are “Morza” and “Myrza.” 9 It is necessary for the reader to get positive clarification that the name Ahmadiyya is named after the original birth-name of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), which was Ahmad. He retained that name till age of 6, when it was changed to Muhammad. 10 The 14th Century Hijri covers the period 1883AD – 1979AD. We are now in the 15th Islamic Century AH (Hijri). 2 Professor Muhammad Ali was most brilliantly versed both in spoken and in written English11, and the same with Urdu, Punjabi, Persian and Arabic languages. He studied those languages for his BA (his first degree) and he was so well versed in all those languages. The 14th Hijri Reformer Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was writing several articles in Urdu almost daily and he desperately needed a language-bridging agent to translate them correctly into perfect English. The prominence of the 14th Hijri Reformer Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was becoming significant and he requested Professor Muhammad Ali to start translating his Urdu articles into English. Since this happened in the days of the British Raj, most expatriate Englishmen who were resident in India as British civil servants, and after having read those articles reached conclusion, that the 14th Hijri Reformer Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was actually hiding a highly educated Englishman in his house, to write those articles in such perfect English. After the 14th Hijri Reformer Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad passed away in 1908, the first successor to Ahmadiyya Movement as its new Head was Maulana Hakeem Noor-Ud-Din. Maulana Hakeem Noor Ud Dean in his capacity as successor and Head of the Ahmadiyya Movement then assigned Professor Muhammad Ali to immediately commence translating the Holy Qur’an directly from Arabic into English. Professor Muhammad Ali was the first non-Englishman and first Muslim in this world to have translated the Holy Qur’an into magnificent English; and also translating the Holy Qur’an into Urdu as the Bayan-ul Qur’an. This took Maulana Muhammad Ali 3 years and the English version of the Holy Qur’an was first published in 1917. The British expatriate Englishmen based in India as civil servants were utterly amazed. Having considered his intense and deep knowledge on all matters in Islam and his unequalled brilliant achievements, Professor Muhammad Ali later became known as Maulana Muhammad Ali after the death of Maulana Hakeem Noor-Ud-Din12 in 1914; and he continued to be known by that name till his own passing away in 195113, at the age of 77 years. The years from 1899 till 1908, when Maulana Muhammad Ali joined the Ahmadiyya Movement and the time when the 14th Hijri Reformer Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad had passed away, are considered to be the “gems years” when Maulana Muhammad Ali 11 Maulana Muhammad Ali did his MA in English in 1896. 12 Maulana Noor-Ud-Din was the first person to make his pledge directly, placing his hand with the hand of the 14th Hijri Reformer Hazrat Mirza Mirza Ghulam Ahmad in 1881. Maulana Noor-Ud-Din, upon unanimous agreement by members of the Ahmadiyya Movement was appointed successor. 13 Maulana Muhammad Ali died at 11.30 am on 13th October 1951 in Karachi. 3 received the precious truthfulness about Islam, directly from the 14th Hijri Reformer Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. Maulana Muhammad Ali had a video memory and not only did he remember whatever he read but he also remembered every word that he was discussing in those 9 years. When Maulana Muhammad Ali had completed all his studies and ready to go into private practice as a young lawyer, his age was 25 and the age of the 14th Hijri Reformer Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was 64. The 14th Hijri Reformer Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad had founded the Ahmadiyya Movement in 1889 and the Ahmadiyya Movement had then been in existence for just 10 years. It is very important to fully comprehend the global environment and the global political situation, which existed around those times. The British Government at its height of expansion had commandeered and taken control of the Mughal Empire14 of India in 1857 and the British Empire15 was the largest empire in the world at that time. English became the default language that was the main spoken language in all countries, which were listed as parts of the British Empire.